shock to ur system
by antivancrows
Summary: Fate's pissing itself in laughter somewhere in the beyond, she's sure. And it's all because Leah Clearwater has finally imprinted. Hurrah, hurrah.


_Disclaimer: Strong language that's not typical in *Actual Twilight*, brief (not entirely descriptive?) mentions of substance abuse, etc. Timeline wise (by the books) between the end of Eclipse and before the wedding in Breaking Dawn.  
_

* * *

 _This is bullshit_ , she seethes.

A pang of pure guilt hits her square in the chest, and her feet - goddammit, _paws_ \- hit the ground faster and faster until it feels as though she's flying. If only.

Sam.

 _You can't run away from it forever._

A guttural growl tears its way out of her throat. _Watch me._

 _At least she's cute?_

 _Shut the fuck up, Ateara._

Her own mind betrays her, despite her severe attempts to quash it, and an image flashes before her eyes of a pair of big, blue eyes peering at her curiously from beneath the cover of a fitted black baseball cap. _Caroline's_ , scrawled across the brim of it in fine lettering, covering pin-straight golden hair tied back neatly in a ponytail.

( she'd smelled like overly sweetened coffee; the very kind that Leah can't stomach without getting nauseous. now, it's all she wants to drink, ever, and the thought alone infuriates the fuck out of her. )

 _Wait, hold up. You went to Caroline's and didn't bring back shit for us?_

For a minute, she's convinced she's going to abruptly turn tail and kill the little runt.

 _Quil, phase out. You'll take a later shift since you obviously can't keep your unhelpful thoughts to yourself._

Leah can hear a displeased howl sound off in the distance. Yeah, well. Sucks to suck. The literal only decent side of having previous attachments to the pack's Alpha is that he's always a little more likely to take her side out of some deep-seated, and frankly well-deserved guilt -Leah - 1, Pubescent Assholes she has to share a mind with half the time - 0.

She doesn't even have time to revel in her minor victory because things are so fucked.

 _You expecting a thank you? 'Cause I didn't ask for_ _ **this**_ _, asshole._

 _I'm not expecting anything. It's not up to me, this is your future now._

And wait for it; because nothing with Sam Uley is ever this simple, she's learned.

 _A_ _suggestion?_

 _I don't wanna hear it._

 _You don't want to fight this, Leah. Isn't this what you wanted?_

Wanted, asked for, what she'd been desperately pleading for... Anything to get him out of her head; to fill the void he'd left in her chest. The way it used to seem, when things were still vaguely simple was that _at least_ it'd be better to pine after her supposed 'soulmate' than the man that had left without second thought for his own. But she'd never truly expected to find her other half so close by, so soon, and she'd _never_ considered the possibility of them being a girl.

Why hadn't she? All the other imprints were.

Why the fuck not.

Fate's pissing itself in laughter somewhere in the beyond, she's sure. And it's all because Leah Clearwater has finally imprinted. Hurrah, hurrah.

 **This is what you wanted, isn't it?**

 **Be careful what you wish for next time.**

She's still running, still angry, still so fucking confused when his voice reaches her once more:

 _When you think you're ready to talk, you know where to find me._

* * *

Piper remembers the exact, precise moment her parents gave in - _gave up._

Chief Swan has them sitting, waiting, praying in the tiny waiting room down at the Forks station with their collectively shaking hands wrapped around tiny styrofoam cups of heinously bland coffee. Her mother's face is pale, far paler than she can ever remember seeing it before; like the life's been sucked right out of her. She's been popping Vicodin like candy the past two weeks, or maybe it's been longer. Who knows. Her father remains purely stoic, uneffected. Piper, herself, just remembers trying desperately not to cry. Ashton is far too young for this; at least her stony father and tweaked out mother were reasonable enough to realize this and sent him off to Grandma's for an indeterminate amount of time.

" _When a missing person's case remains open for this long_..." The chief offers, expression thick with guilt. He scratches nervously at his moustache and averts his eyes plainly. He goes into a rather longwinded explanation, offering what few options are left on the don't sound much like options to Piper and by the way her mother grips tightly at her arm it seems the thought is mutual. It sounds like giving up.

"Close it," her father says gruffly.

"Dad," Piper pleads, her hands gripping her little paper cup so tightly that she's afraid the contents will come spilling out over the top. It feels like her chest is about to burst. She fixes her gaze on the police officer, desperate.

 _Don't be dead_ , she thinks. _Don't be dead. I don't care where the hell you are, Riley, but don't be dead._

"He could've run away," she tries, meeting the officer's steely gaze. Something in his eyes is begging her to stop making this harder on all of them but she _can't._ "Riley's a hothead, right? Got into fights all the time, got real emotional - he could've hopped onto a bus or something. Something will turn up."

 _Not dead_ , she repeats like a mantra. _Please_.

"It's been nearly a year," Chief Swan replies, tone even, but she can see the regret he has to swallow down. "If he did run away, he doesn't want to be found." _But he didn't run away_ , is what he doesn't say. He knows kids. And kids like Riley Biers don't stay gone for very long, if they even manage to make it far enough away in the first place. "I'm sorry. I'll - I'll get the paperwork ready to close this case, if that's what you want," his eyes flicker towards Piper's father.

"Yes," he replies calmly; too calmly. His voice registers as nails on a chalkboard to Piper.

"No," Piper argues, but her mother's hand gripping her shoulder tightens its hold. She glances to find a matching pair of crystal blue eyes staring back at her, pleading with her to _just shut the fuck up._ "He's not dead," she says, looking at the officer once more. "I'd feel it, I'd know. He's not, he can't be gone. He'll - He'll come back."

"I hope so, kid," is the sympathetic response.

After that, things change.

Riley doesn't come back - even after several torturous months of hoping vainly. Piper's mother sticks to her little Vicodin kicks; her father does little to discourage it and instead throws himself into his work. Ashton comes back, and even he isn't left unscathed, no matter how much Piper hates to admit it. Her little brother watches her with wide eyes, as if he's always afraid that one day she'll take off too and disappear completely.

With their mother off sipping wine coolers by day and going off on drug benders by night, and their father essentially non-existent at this point, Piper does her best to fill the voids left for her remaining little brother.

She has to.

 _I won't leave you,_ _ever_ , she thinks, when they're at the kitchen table and she's helping him with his homework. Sometimes his hands shake around the pencil and she has to fuss with his hair the way that Riley used to until he calms down a little. His eyes are a deep brown, just like Riley's, and sometimes - though she's really not proud of it - the resemblance is a bit too uncanny to not mistake him for her other baby brother. Those are the only times she can let herself regret taking a break from school to fix her very broken family.

The grief sucks in itself, but what's worse? The not knowing.

The days she has off from work - at a tiny cafe aptly named Caroline's down in Port Angeles - she spends tearing down the missing person's posters still lingering between Forks and Seattle. Those days are always the longest and she always winds up bleary eyed at stop lights and stop signs. Still, she'd rather the only remnants of her brother be peaceful ones. The poorly developed pictures of him rummaging through the garbage as a toddler, or dressed as a Power Ranger on Halloween or something. Anything. _Just not this_ ; not this painful reminder of not knowing.

The people at work all know. Of course they do. Riley Biers was headline news at one point, after all.

It gets tiring, the sympathy. Though, guilt runs hotly within her whenever she thinks something particularly spiteful at someone just trying to be helpful - it's not their fault, really. It's not anyone's fault. This is just what life does. But life keeps wearing Piper Biers too thin, much too thin, and sometimes it feels decidedly unmanagable.

Particularly when faced with difficult customers.

"The menu is up there," Piper says, pointing directly above her head. The customer, a middle-aged woman with deep lines written plainly about her mouth, scowls at her haughtily. "We can accommodate specifics if necessary."

The woman opens her mouth - likely about to chew her out for her 'reprehensible attitude' and do something dumb like ask for her manager, who absolutely adores Piper, thanks very much - when an abrupt cough interrupts the scene. To Piper, it sounds like music and she smiles to herself discretely.

"If you aren't going to order," the voice says a bit harshly. "Maybe step out of line."

" _Excuse me_ \- ?"

"I can take you over here, ma'am," Micah chimes in from Piper's left, offering her a wink.

Nothing like retail solidarity. Bless Micah Howell.

Piper watches, pleased, as the woman makes her way to Micah's register and her personal savior steps up. She glances curiously up at the figure, and the sort of imposing woman returns her stare blankly.

"Thanks," Piper says, quiet and kind of conspiratorially. "If you're into baked goods, I can probably slide you a scone or something on the house. But, first, your order?"

Her dark eyes are glazed over before her entire face registers something like shock.

"Are you, um, okay?"

"Holy shit, no."

"Do you - " Piper feels discontentment settle in her gut. Fear? No, much less intense. Concern? "Do you need me to call an ambulance or something? Are you sick?"

"No, no, no," the woman mutters mostly to herself. She fixes her eyes on Piper once more before making a dash for the exit with an impressive kind of speed. The bells above the door barely have time to chime uselessly before Piper blinks at the recently vacated space left in her wake.

"What did you do?" She can hear Micah mutter from her side, bemused.

Piper swallows, still staring at the door. It sort of feels like she's waiting for the woman to come running back but that's insane. Why should she want that? "I...I don't know?"

* * *

 _She looks kind of familiar_ , Seth thinks; well, more like worries. The anxiety is rolling off of him in waves and Leah can hear Embry bitching about it somewhere off in the distance from his own post.

 _She works at Caroline's_ , Leah dismisses him. _All those hipster baristas look the same after a while._

 _No. Like, really familiar._

An image of a blond bloodsucker getting his head torn off flashes before her, his bloodied-red eyes staring vacantly towards the sky. Missing person's posters sticking to every available surface for the past year or so. Riley Biers. His pictures plastered all over the papers, the news. She sees his limp, porcelain body as it's torn to shreds. Burned. He had the same nose, same sharp cheekbones as the _Caroline's girl_ only enhanced by the telltale leech Super Pheromones. Goddamn it.

 _I killed him,_ Seth thinks, horrified.

The resemblance is almost eerily similar, but she's not about to let her little brother torture himself over possibilities. Besides, Barista Girl is extremely not his problem, and Leah's working on making her extremely not _her_ problem either. It's very much a work in progress.

 _Lotsa pasty Forks people look alike. Stop fussing._

 _Leah._

 _Stop,_ she thinks with an angry growl.

 _Leah, I think we should go talk to her. If it was, she deserves to know._

If she weren't in wolf-form, she would groan. Of course. Her little brother - Saint Seth incarnate - always looking to do the right fucking thing. Where the hell did he get that from? Certainly not whatever gene pool _she_ came from. Must've been adopted. Or he's been learning from Saint Sanctimonious himself - the leech mind-reader. There's an even grimmer thought. Blech.

 _Oh, and should we also tell her that he was behind the Seattle massacre? That'll go over well. No. You wanna do the right thing? We all stay the fuck away from her. Let her live a normal life where vampires are still just bad romance novel tropes, and wolves don't have annoying telepathic conversations over her well-being behind her back._

Seth lets out a sad whimper. _What about you?_

The urge to roll her eyes is barely repressed. _What about me, kid?_

 _She could make you happy. You could make each other happy._

There are those big, blue eyes again; blinking at her curiously. The secretive, tiny smile that she'd worn while Leah had verbally bitched out the angry customer makes her head a little dizzy. Goddamn it. What the fuck. This is so - _twisted_. Beyond, even. Is this really what she wanted? Mind-numbing devotion to a stranger? At least Sam was the furthest thing from her mind now, but it feels like trading one extremely bad trip down Relationship Road for the next. There's no winning and she'd been a dumbass to think otherwise; to wish for this, even.

 _I don't know her, and she doesn't have to know me._

 _You're in pain already. How long do you think you can keep this up?_

 _As long as I have to._

And, once more, she runs as fast as her feet - fine, fucking _paws_ \- will take her.

* * *

The thing Piper remembers most about Riley is his stubbornness. With him, nothing was out of the realm of possibility. When he nearly flunked out of P.E. in middle school for being a bit smaller (and much lazier) than the other kids, instead of accepting it for what it was, he'd spent weeks in the backyard doing push ups and running up and down their long driveway in the Washington rain. His laziness evaporated in the face of someone, anyone saying ' _you can't do it'_ , and he _would_ do it just to spite them. Always, without fail.

When his high school teachers had told him he'd never get into Oregon Uni with his lackluster GPA, he'd gotten particularly hardheaded. Spent weeks pouring over books in the library, begging Piper to help him with admission forms, and she'd watched him pull his grades up nearly last minute. Nothing short of a miracle. But then again, who would dare expect anything less from Riley Biers?

She misses him. A lot.

On really bad days, it hurts to even look at Ashton. Thankfully, those days have become much less frequent with the passing of time.

Piper's watched her mother tear herself to pieces; clinging to all the wrong coping methods and steadily refusing help. She's watched her father tear himself away from his family completely, apparently only content in his isolation. She won't let the same happen to her, or Ashton, that's for damn sure. Even if it's just them against the world, that'll be enough. It has to be now.

She can't safely rely on her parents any longer, not really, and so she starts putting money aside in secret. It's not much. She'd given up school to come back home to be with her family - yeah, the one that's rapidly falling apart - so she doesn't have to pay rent, and ultimately giving up a bit of her paycheck to secure Ashton's future is hardly much of a sacrifice in her opinion. If she can never return to school - _if Riley can never graduate_ \- she'll at least give him the choice, the opportunity.

One of the Biers has to toughen up and give a big ol' _'fuck you'_ to fate and Piper figures that it might as well be her.

Though, it still kind of kills her that all the remains of her brother now are hushed whispers in the city.

 _( that boy who went missing.)_

 _(they never found him.)_

 _(he's probably dead, you know. )_

As she makes her way up the steps to Caroline's, she can feel the bile rising in her throat. Today wasn't supposed to be a bad day. Today was supposed to be an okay day. Though, Piper is quickly realizing that she has little control over other people's capacity to ruin her plans exponentially. It sucks. A lot.

The bells greet her with a lingering three chimes. Micah offers her a blinding smile from behind the counter but Piper can only wave meekly. Bad day, bad day, bad day; she's sure it's written all over her face.

"I've got the front," Micah says, voice ringing like an angel. "You can take the back for the first hour or so."

"Thanks," croaks Piper, eternally grateful.

It's a long day. A long, bad day.

She has to remake a customer's order after screwing it up twice. Her head pounds, her chest aches, and she knows that even Micah's near endless patience won't hold up for long if she keeps this up. She lasts about two and a half hours before her manager ends up sending her home early with furrowed brows. Piper's first instinct is to ask whether she's in trouble. She needs this job, needs to be able to support herself and her brother but there it is, written plainly: _pity._

It hurts more than the idea of being fired mercilessly, to be honest, and she sulks all the way to her car.

It should startle her that there's a figure propped up against it, but she's too sad and tired to really care. She stares at their feet; combat boots with laces tied messily.

"Do you mind? I need," she exhales, her voice sounding watery. Goddamn it, she's going to cry. "I really need to go home...So..." After a moment of silence, she glances up wearily before her eyes widen in plain shock. "You."

Tall, dark, and all menacing-expression. She's still imposing, but Piper's not really afraid though maybe she should be. Her dark eyes are intense, and her mouth opens like she wants to say something before closing again and glancing far off to the side. It's another short while before she finally speaks. "Hi."

Okay.

Piper laughs, startled. It sounds wrong, but the stinging in her eyes lessens. "Hello. You're, um, leaning on my car."

"Ah," the woman stands up, back straight. She's so tall. So, so tall. "Sorry."

"It's okay. You don't really strike me as a thief and my alarm's busted anyway." There's a lightness in her steps as she draws closer but the stranger almost stiffens at her proximity. Piper glances up at her - sharp jaw, sharp brows, sharp nose - almost all at once she feels warmth spread all over from head to toe. Somehow, inexplicably, she knows she's safe. "Unless you make a habit of conversing with all of your victims," she adds a bit coyly.

"Uh, yeah, no." Something in her expression looks troubled. "You probably shouldn't run around telling potential threats that your alarm isn't working, also. That's... like really, really dumb."

Piper twirls her keys in hand. "You're not a potential threat, though."

"Well, no, but _you_ didn't know that five seconds ago, idi- um. Never mind, you know what? Listen." Piper watches as the stranger crosses her arms and shifts uncomfortably. "I think I mostly came to apologize for being the weirdest customer you've ever had, probably. I can't really remember because you've astounded me with your stunning lack of self awareness." It's almost teasing, her tone.

Piper feels her lips tug into a grin. "You're _hardly_ the weirdest. Do you not live in Forks? We're all fucked. It's in the water, I think."

A scoff. "No kidding."

"I'm Piper," she offers first, firmly refusing to add Biers to the end. She doesn't want to be reminded. Not right now, not when she's so giddy her hands are probably shaking. Right now she's just Piper and that's okay.

The stranger's stare slightly intensifies until suddenly she's no longer a stranger. "Leah."

"Nice to meet you, Leah," Piper smiles, her whole face lighting up with the gesture. "You're still kind of in the way of my car."

"Oh. Shit." Leah steps aside so quickly and so clumsily that Piper has to fight back a laugh. "Sorry. This is still really fucking weird."

Piper unlocks the driver's seat before peering back at Leah who still hovers by; a nervous air about her. "You need a ride? How did you get here?"

If possible, Leah's darker skin pales at the question. "I, uh, took the bus."

"Well," Piper tilts her head. "At the risk of having you question my self awareness again... You want a ride? Where do you live?"

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're kind of an idiot," Leah says abruptly. "Offering strangers rides. Are you fucking insane?"

"I'm being neighborly," she argues, already sitting behind the wheel. She pats the passenger seat, quirking a brow. "Besides, we aren't strangers anymore."

Leah rolls her eyes.

It shouldn't be this easy; washing away the sadness, the guilt, the flames in her throat with a little banter from a stranger, but it is. It's so painfully easy and Piper doesn't know why she's thrilled when Leah makes her way to the other side of the car and ducks into the passenger seat. If her parents were mentally sound enough to care, they might chastise her for being so trusting; too trusting. But they aren't, and they don't, so Piper accepts it for what it is and finds herself laughing the hardest she has in a very long time as they make their way down to the rez with Leah's directions.

* * *

It was so much easier before she talked to her.

She'd only gone to see Barista Girl with the expectations that she'd turn her off immediately. That she'd be annoying, or childish, or stupid, or something equally off-putting. But she wasn't. She was funny - albeit gifted with _Swan Princess_ levels of unawareness - but at least she had a sense of humor to make up for the apparent lack of self preservation. Unlike some others.

 _Shut up,_ Jake's thought is a mere mutter. _You don't know her like I do._

 _We all know her like you do, man. Hive mind, remember?_

For the first time in a long time, Leah doesn't argue with Quil. Small miracles and shit.

 _This is when the X-Files music starts playing,_ adds Embry.

 _I hate you all._ But Jacob Black is amused, and they all fucking know it. Hive mind, indeed. For once, it's not... painfully irritating, and that's all she's willing to admit in present company.

 _She likes us, she really likes us!_

Well, that didn't last long.

Thank god.

 _You gonna bring her down to the rez to meet the pack?_

He doesn't need to be in human form for Leah to be able to imagine Quil's squirrelly eyebrows waggling suggestively.

 _God, no._

And then, because she's Leah Clearwater, she adds snarkily:

 _Don't you have a toddler's ass to wipe, Ateara?_

 _Oh shit, here we go._

 _SAM SAID IMPRINT REMARKS WERE OFF THE TABLE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LEAH_

 _Sam's not here, dipshit. And you didn't have a problem when you were talking about mine a minute ago._

 _JAKE TELL HER OFF, DO THAT ALPHA-BUT-NOT-ALPHA THING_

 _Yeah, no._

 _Man, you're giving me a headache,_ Embry complains. _Why are you so fucking loud? Maybe you should take a page out of Claire's book and take a nap sometime, my dude._

Leah snorts.

 _You're all gonna be sorry when you see the mad cash I'm making from this built-in babysitter gig. Assholes!_

 _Amazing. You're getting paid to be a full-time perv. Someone call Chris Hanson, we've got a professional in our midst._

Embry's bark of laughter is reluctant, even Leah can tell, but Quil expectedly still takes it as the ultimate betrayal and howls mournfully through the forest.

 _E tu, Brute?_

 _Leah, please,_ Jacob's reply is exasperated. _You know it's not like that._

But it _could_ be like that, one day, and no one seems to give a shit. She's careful to keep this particular bit of wisdom tucked neatly away, lest she unleash Quil Ateara's _actual_ fury. Not like she wouldn't be able to take the runt - _oh, she would, easily_ \- it'd just be a spectacular waste of time and Sam would chew her out thoroughly for it later. Not even a little worth the lecture or extended patrols.

Fucking imprints. Fucking fate. It's all fucked, in her extremely humble opinion.

( the sickly sweet smell of caramel and coffee follows her everywhere. piper, piper, piper; and what once would've set her blood boiling now sends her head spinning in circles. goddamn it. )

* * *

At the sight of her mother's car pulled up in the driveway, Piper freezes. She can feel Leah hovering at her side warily; waiting. She says something that doesn't register immediately because all of Piper's thoughts revolve around what the hell she's going to do about her likely blitzed-out mother scaring off her first, _real_ friend in a while.

"Hey," Leah places a hand on her shoulder, grips it tight enough to drag her back out of her own head. Piper blinks at her, eyes wide and hands shaking. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Piper swallows the lie. "Yeah, I just -"

"We can hang out at my place if this is a bad time or something. No big deal."

Piper's eyes flicker towards the car, and then the front door to the house. The fear creeps up and over her like a second skin. She doesn't want to lose the one person who doesn't treat her like _Piper Biers_ ; the girl who lost her brother and never got over it. Before she can gratefully accept Leah's offer, the house door swings open and out stumbles her mother - of course, she's blatantly fucking high. Of course.

"Piper," she calls from the porch. Piper really doesn't want her to risk the steps and crack her head open, so she breaks into a run to be at her side. Leah follows at a much slower pace. "Piper," she repeats, a lazy smile on her face. She's got purplish, heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes. Piper wants to scream ' _stop this, just stop'_ but she just steadies her mother like the dutiful daughter she has to be.

"Mom, you need to lie down," murmurs Piper. "Let's get you inside."

"But I'm not tired, honey! Who's your friend, Pipes?"

Pipes.

That was Riley's nickname for her. It's been locked away so tightly for so long that the pure shock of hearing it nearly knocks the air right out of her lungs. She barely catches herself by latching onto her mother's shoulder; tightening her grip, and ignoring the sharp pain resounding in her chest.

"She's - That's Leah. But you need to try and lie down, alright? I'll introduce you later, when you aren't...Just come on."

"Leah?" Her mother purses her lips in thought before her eyes shoot open. Her pupils are so blown that the tiny ring of blue is barely visible. She fixes her gaze on Leah, much to Piper's dismay. "I don't remember a Leah. What about that other friend of yours? What's the name...hm..."

"It's new," Piper whispers, trying very hard not to burst into tears. She can feel Leah's eyes boring holes into the back of her head. She doesn't want to look and find something like pity; she doesn't want it, or have a need for it. "Leah's a new friend, okay? Now you've met, and so we should get you inside to rest, alright?"

"Hmmm, okay. I guess a nap would be fine. But don't forget to pick up Riley from school at three, honey."

The name sends sharp jabs through her heart, Piper nearly falls to her knees as it's so unexpected. No one in this house so much utters the name Riley these days; not even Ashton, who she's certain her mother is _actually_ referring to. Still feeling sick to her stomach, Piper manages to herd her mother into the house and coerce her into bed. She leaves a glass of water at her bedside and a kiss on her forehead before she sprints down the stairs, trying to scrounge up some lame excuse or another to offer Leah. By the time she reaches her, she finds she has none.

"God," Piper chokes out. "I'm - I'm sorry. She - She's - "

"Stop," Leah says, and she pulls Piper's shaking form into her arms easily. That inexplicable feeling of safety is back, and for the first time in a very long while, Piper lets herself cry. She's filled with warmth, so much warmth. It's a stark contrast from the life she's been living. A stonecold father, a mother with icy, pallid hands, and the fucking freezing Washington rain washing out the remnants of her baby brother and eroding at the very last bits of him inside her frozen chest.

"I miss him so much," Piper wails, wrapping her arms around Leah tighter. "I miss him so much but I know she does, too, and I can't blame her - I should, but I _can't_."

A strong hand finds its way into her hair, presses her head into the warmth more firmly. "That's okay."

"Is it," wonders Piper, voice muffled. "Doesn't feel like it."

"It will be," amends Leah.

"It's already been so long," she leans away, just a little, and peeks up with sorrowful cobalt eyes. "I never even," Piper swallows. "I never even told you about Riley, did I?" At Leah's furrowed brows, she continues, "Can we go for a ride? Not...now. I kind of have to stay and keep an eye on her, but soon?"

"Yeah, of course, just call me. Whenever you want."

And then they're hugging again and the warmth is back and that's all that matters.

* * *

 _This is so fucked up._

Piper's got her eyes fixed firmly on the road as Leah tries not to peer too intently at her for overlong periods of time. She doesn't really know where they're headed, just that they've been driving through the city for a while now, maybe a half hour, in almost complete silence. The radio bleats out a quiet, solemn tune that meshes with the rain falling down a little too aptly.

( every so often she'll feel that sharp jab in her chest; the ache of missing someone she's never known, never will know - fucking imprints. these feelings aren't her own and it feels nothing short of an intrusion to be able to reflect on them so wholly. )

Leah's determinedly staring out the window as Piper pulls into a drab looking parking lot. It's near empty, aside from a few parked cars a few ways back. She tears her eyes away from the raindrops spilling over the window and fixes her gaze on Piper, lifting a brow in question.

Piper lets out a shaky laugh. "Looks like the mystery's over." She removes the keys from the ignition, her expression turning suddenly timid. "I know the weather sucks but we live in Forks, so... Besides, we won't stay long." And then she's out of the car and without further explanation - because of course words aren't needed here, between them - Leah follows.

"I know this is weird, like really weird," Piper begins, rubbing at her arms, probably trying to weed out the cold. Or maybe it's just a nervous tick? "But I couldn't think of any other way to start this...conversation, I guess. I've never had to tell anyone before, they just knew."

They're walking towards a greener area, a little far off. The parking lot wasn't the destination, Leah realizes, just a more convenient means of ditching the car. This is a cemetery.

Oh, fuck.

This is so fucked up.

The lithe blonde leads the way, her footsteps against the wet pavement echoing harshly in Leah's ears. All she can really think, belatedly, is: _they can't have found the body, we fucking burned it. what the hell, what the hell, what the -_

Lonely little stone slabs litter the way; all with names, once belonging to somebody and long since surrendered, etched into them. Piper stares straight ahead, while Leah tries her hardest not to freak the hell out. They walk for a few minutes in eerie silence. She can feel the lukewarm rain soaking up her clothes but she doesn't care, not now, not when everything is just so messed up.

Finally, Piper stops. "Do you know what happens when a Missing Person's case is closed permanently?"

"I can only assume," mutters Leah, though not unkindly.

Piper glances at her with a sad smile. "My father pegged Riley for dead almost immediately. He didn't even want the police to bother, he was so sure. Still, my mother and I insisted enough that he gave in for a while. A few months later, seven to be exact, and still they'd come up with nothing. Not even a body," she chokes out, turning her eyes to the ground. "At month eight my mother started her, um, habits. Drinking a little more, taking unprescribed medication. I knew it'd only get worse, so I convinced them both to send my little brother, Ashton, away for a while."

"That was good of you."

"Maybe," Piper mumbles, digging her heels into the pavement miserably. Eventually, after a few seconds of pure silence, she looks up with those big, sad eyes and it sends a jolt of agony throughout Leah's entire body. She has to suppress a shudder at the sheer intensity of it. "Predictably, it did get worse. My dad had the case shut after a year exactly. He started focusing on work and only work; pretended not to see what my mother got up to in her own time, he was content to let her cope the way she wanted to, I guess. He didn't care what it was doing to me, or even that Ashton was catching on when he came back. He - He still doesn't care. I don't know how to make him care, or how to get my mom the help she needs if she won't accept it."

"I'm," Leah swallows. "I'm sorry, that's such bullshit." And she means it.

This startles a laugh out of Piper, and even if her smile is grim, Leah counts it as a small victory. "It is, isn't it?"

"You don't deserve it."

"I don't think the universe accounts for what people do and do not deserve," replies Piper, turning her eyes to the stone before them. "Thanks, though." Leah steps closer and lingers at her side apprehensively. She doesn't need to look to know the name that'll be etched into this grave. "Riley broke my family," she admits, voice impossibly quiet; like she's afraid to even have said it out loud.

 _He broke a lot of things_ , Leah doesn't say. _A lot of people. That's what vampires do._

She can't be sorry that Piper's brother is dead if it means that Seth is still alive and that thought alone is enough to twist her insides bitterly. This is so fucked.

"He was officially declared dead about a month ago," Piper dredges on, digging deep for the words that will hurt the least, maybe. "I don't know if he is. It didn't feel like it, then. I guess I was still allowed to hope before but... now I get it. I can see what my parents saw for those first few months. He's not coming back."

Leah has never been so adept at holding her tongue before in her life.

But then, it's never felt so crucial an endeavor before.

 **[ Riley Biers**

 **October 8, 1986 - April, 2005 ]**

"We couldn't pin point an exact date, obviously," answers Piper, apparently noting Leah's examination of the cryptic grave. "So, I chose the month he first stopped answering calls. Seemed fitting. I don't think he'd mind."

"Your parents made you do everything," Leah guesses, a pang of irrational anger stirring in her gut. "Alone."

"Well, not exactly. My mom gave up her and my dad's grave plot. I guess it would've been too much of a hassle to try and buy one on the spot, especially for an essentially empty casket. I think that's what she said, I don't really remember." Piper sighs. "Dad pulled out his credit card for the actual casket - and since we didn't have a body to bury, we ended up just throwing in a bunch of Riley's old things that meant a lot to him. Ashton helped with that mostly."

The anger burns less righteously, fanning out to barely a flicker. "Your mom, is she - ?"

"Still popping pills," confirms the blonde, reluctantly. "I know eventually I'll have to have her admitted somewhere. I think it's the right thing to do, I just... For the longest time I couldn't fathom the idea of taking her choice away from her, you know? But it's not getting better and I don't want Ashton to lose anyone else."

"Ashton," Leah echoes hollowly. _Not you?_

"I think if I had to, I could handle it. In fact, I'd probably have abandoned the situation entirely by now. Gone back to school to just try to forget, you know? But I can't. I can't leave him with them - not when they're like _this_." Piper's tone is icy, as cold as Leah's ever heard it before. "And neither of them seem keen on changing anytime soon, so yeah, leaving just isn't an option."

"How old's your little - " before the question is fully out, Leah thinks better of it. "How old is Ashton?"

At this, Piper smiles. "Fourteen and a half, as he'd tell you. The clarification is extremely important, of course."

Leah snorts.

"He likes chatting up the girls at the local grocery store with his go-to line ' _But_ _I'm -almost- fifteen_ , _I swear_." Piper laughs, and Leah follows suit easily.

"Sounds like my brother. Around the same age, too."

"Really?" Piper seems surprised. Then, her expression falters and becomes a little sheepish. "God, I just unloaded a lifetime of baggage onto you and I didn't even know you had a brother. Sorry?"

"I'm glad you told me," reassures Leah. "I'm not...glad it happened, or that you have to deal with it, but I'm glad I know. You seem less _'hipster barista I met that one time'_ and more, like, I don't know? You?"

"Technically, I _am_ that hipster barista you met that one time."

"Yeah, but now you're _more_. I don't know. Sounds dumb saying it out loud, sounded a lot nicer in my head, I think."

"More," Piper repeats, seeming to taste the word before smiling a little more genuinely. "More is good."

* * *

The first time Piper 'meets' Leah's little brother, he runs away. Actually bolts out of the kitchen, leaps impressively over the living room sofa and leaves Piper gaping disbelievingly in his wake. She vaguely remembers Sue - Leah's impossibly sweet mother - patting her on the shoulder, as if she were the one who had gotten spooked enough to hurdle her way over some La-z Boy furnishings.

Leah dismisses this strange act with a subtle: "He's shy."

But Piper doesn't quite believe that, not if he's taken even an iota after his tentative, but oddly charming older sister. Still, she doesn't really know what she could've possibly done to scare him off so quickly, so she lets it go.

Well.

Until the second time at the beach. Once more, at the mere sight of her, Seth Clearwater breaks into a startled run.

Only, this time, Piper Biers follows at a brisk but comfortable pace.

She barely has time to be thankful that she'd taken track and been adept at it in high school, because, holy shit, the boy is _fast._ Piper can hear Leah's voice calling after her, sounding particularly irritated. She doesn't care. She needs to know what she's done to offend this kid that she's never spoken a word to in her life.

"Hey!" She shouts, his shoulders visibly tense but he keeps running. The way they're heading now, they'll end up lost in this forest before long and that's not a very comforting thought at all. Still, she persists. "Seth? Did I do something wrong?!"

"Piper!"

Leah sidles up alongside her, which is surprising because Piper hadn't even heard her break into a run in the first place. Piper ignores her, keeps running until she's suddenly lifted and the world shifts vertically - and, oh, " _Leah_! Put me down!"

"No," Leah says, turning back towards the rez.

"He's going to get lost or something!" Piper tries to argue. "There were those brutal animal attacks a few months ago, he could get hurt!"

"He's not going to get lost or hurt. He knows this forest in and out."

"Still-!"

"Relax," and it's hard not to calm, at least a little. Leah still doesn't put her down, much to Piper's dismay, and they make their way back to the little gathering on the beach. One of the boys - Quil, was it? - makes crude gestures while the less exuberant one at his side rolls his eyes fondly. "He'll be fine."

"He doesn't like me. That's it, isn't it?"

"That's not..." As they approach the fire, Leah finally puts Piper to her feet and looks her dead in the eye. "Seth likes everyone. You're not an exception, I promise." It's hard not to believe her.

"Then why does he look so scared whenever I'm around?"

"I - He's shy, or whatever. Thinks you're cute, probably."

Piper blinks. Then, she frowns. "I've never had a guy run away from me because of that before."

Leah rolls her eyes. "And you've sent a lot of guys running away from you before, I take it?"

"Well," Piper says, plopping into one of the chairs set out. Leah follows suit beside her. She tries to ignore the looks she can feel they're getting from everyone else. _Of course_ , she'd go and make a scene on her first real proper introduction to Leah's friends, of course... "They usually wait until they find out I'm gay before they run, but I guess I'm flattered? He's not going to be upset when he finds out, is he?"

She can hear someone do a spit take. From the sound of incredibly juvenile laughter that follows, she can only assume it was the infamous Quil.

 _"Holy shit."_

 _"Hahahahaha!"_

Leah stares at her.

Piper shrinks in on herself, almost self consciously. "Did...Did you not know? Sometimes I forget, like I'm so used to being surrounded by people who already know. Um, you aren't.. like, this doesn't make things weird, right? I've lost female friends before because they thought I'd get a crush on them or something, but I swear it's not like that."

"What?" Leah blinks dumbly, before she shakes her head firmly. "No. No, I don't...It doesn't matter, okay?"

" _So_ , when's the wedding, ladies?"

"Quil, shut the fuck up!"

"It's okay," Piper laughs, a little relieved that the tension's been broken. "I came out in high school, so I'm already well accustomed to the jokes." Glancing coyly in Quil's direction, she purses her lips. "I'm not sure he could offend me if he tried."

"It's not you I'm trying to offend, Goldilocks," the boy winks.

"I'm going to kick his ass," decides Leah, voice barely more than a murmur. It must be the wide-eyed expression he catches Piper fixing her with that sets him off into a run towards the ocean because she's sure there's no way he could have heard her. Piper watches with amusement as Leah darts after him, cursing his name at the top of her lungs. She supposes she'd be more concerned if the incident passed without something like this; it just wouldn't feel right, complete.

It isn't long that she spends watching Leah chase Quil with borderline murderous intent when someone takes up the seat next to her. Piper's eyes flick towards the figure, curious. Introductions had been done so quickly - and really only Quil had left much of a lasting impression, as _bad_ as that sounds - that she doesn't recognize this man. All she can recollect is that he's spent most of the day lingering by a woman's side, and Leah had kept her well-away from the pair after they'd initially arrived and said their brief _'hellos'_ and _'nice to meet yous'_.

"Hi," she offers. "I'm Piper."

The man quirks a half-smile. His face is handsome enough, and so is the rest of him, she supposes. "I know." And then, he adds. "Sam."

She watches his eyes follow Leah and Quil's antics; almost amused but not quite, as though there's some kind of seriousness within him that's holding him back from just enjoying himself. She thinks it's sad, after all he looks kind of young to be _that_ intense.

So, she gives him an encouraging smile, and says, "Does this happen a lot?"

"Yes," and there's no hesitance in his answer, at once she knows it's true. "Too much."

"Quil's an instigator," Piper guesses.

Sam chuckles, low and smooth. "Leah's not much better."

When the squabbling pair head towards the water, Piper shivers unintentionally. "They're going to freeze. The water's got to be icy by now."

"They'll be fine," he replies. His dark eyes find her own, and Piper can sense that something's holding him back - there's something he's dying to say, or ask, but he simply won't let himself.

But Piper Biers has never known such reservations, or been shy in the least, and so she presses, "What is it?"

Sam's lips form a thin line and his eyebrows furrow. She can see his eyes glance towards Leah for a brief moment before meeting her own once more. "Your mother," he begins and Piper's blood chills. He seems to catch the guarded look on her face because he immediately backpedals, "Leah didn't _tell_ me, exactly. She was just asking about facilities; she knows my mother went through something similar after my dad left, and I kind of put the pieces together. You're sort of a new fixture in her life, so it wasn't hard, I'm sorry."

The expected feeling of betrayal never came.

Instead, Piper just feels warm. "She - She asked?" _For me?_

She must have an extremely dopey expression on her face, because Sam smiles kindly -far more kindly than she's seen him exhibit so far. It lessens the harshness of his features; makes him look soft, almost. "You mean a lot to her."

Piper fixes her quickly watering eyes back towards the ocean; back towards Leah, who's got Quil on his stomach and has his hands firmly clasped behind his back screaming ' _Uncle', I said 'Uncle', you sadistic bitch!_ ', and suddenly things just feel right.

"She means a lot to me too," and it feels like she really, really means it.

* * *

 _You can't keep running away from her. She's getting upset._

 _I can't look her in the eye,_ Seth agonizes. _I killed her brother. If she knew, she'd hate me._

 _Her brother was already dead._

 _You know what I mean!_

 _No, I don't,_ Leah wants to growl. _She's never going to find out about the vampy bullshit, so just deal, okay? Forget it._

 _I can't! Every time I look at her, I see it all over again, Leah. I can't. Either we tell her or I ignore her for the rest of eternity ! I'll just run off to live in the woods as a wolf for the next thirty years !_

 _Okay, cool it with the fucking theatrics. You've been spending too much time with the Sparklers, me thinks._

 _Leaaaaaah!_

 _I'll think about it._

She really, really doesn't want to, but she owes her brother at least this much; her consideration. It hurts, aches awfully to think about those wide, blue eyes looking at her in fear -or, perhaps worse, with spite, for what they'd all done to her brother...even if he was just a walking, talking husk being led by the nose by an exponentially bloodthirstier husk.

Ugh.

If she's going to do this...she needs help, _back-up_ so to speak. Someone to keep her from losing control and to gauge when enough is enough for Piper. Someone to play referee and counselor all at once. ...Someone who doesn't have a reason to go running their mouth after the fact.

Sensing her thoughts, Seth chimes in (un)helpfully: _I know! I know!_

An image of the leech who had taught them all how to take on the newborns flashes before her eyes so suddenly that it nearly sends her into a fit. Talk about sensory overload. She still remembers the overly sweet scent that blond prick had emanated, and even in wolf form, she shudders in disgust at the memory. Like a Yankee Candle store on crack, all of them.

 _Warn me before you pull that shit, ugh._

 _He's an empath, remember? He's exactly what you need._

...A Sparkler. Blech.

 _I can ask if you want. I think most of them like me._

 _Yeah, that'll be helpful. Trap her in a room with both a werewolf and a vampire, that won't scare the shit out of her. Fuck. I can't believe I'm actually considering this._

 _At least between the two of you there'll be enough proof to keep her from questioning?_

She can't believe she thought this was an okay idea.

"Keep your teeth to yourself," she warns lowly, far too lowly for Piper to hear from her place perched on the porch swing. "Any sudden moves and I'll tear your fucking head off."

The leech beside her barely bristles at the mild threat, at least she'll give him credit for that. He pastes a clinically perfect smile on his baby powder face and the severity of it creeps the fuck out of her, but alright. Whatever. This is fine. "She's nervous, anxious." He pauses. "...Jealous?"

"What the actual fuck? Did I ask?" Then, because she's offended that he thinks he can read Piper better than her, she adds, "Anyone with eyes can see she's nervous, leech."

 _But,_

 _Jealous, what the hell for_?

Leah peers at the blond bloodsucker, considers him thoroughly for a minute. Then, she turns her eyes towards Piper who watches them - _trying_ to be subtle - from the porch. When their eyes meet, she stubbornly turns her head quickly away, sending her pin straight blonde ponytail whipping behind her.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

"She probably thinks we're - " she has to swallow, the idea is so vile. " _Together_."

"Fear," is all he says, furrowing his brows. "...of abandonment."

"Stop staring at her, you fucking freak," Leah hisses, grabbing him by the arm as harshly as she likes - he won't bruise. He should count himself lucky that she doesn't tear it off entirely, in fact. "She probably thinks I'm ditching her for you, so let's clear this shit up, Donnie Darko."

His lips twitch in mild amusement, but he follows.

"Hey, Pipes."

Piper jumps, though predictably she fixes them both with a nervous sort of smile. "Oh, hey! You brought a, um, friend?"

"We're _not_ friends," clarifies Leah.

"Uh?" Piper laughs, confused. "Okay?" She looks at the bloodsucker, offering him a tight smile. "I'm Piper."

"Jasper," he replies easily. The smile he fixes Piper with is so near blinding (and obviously predatory) that it sets Leah's blood boiling. The vampire has the audacity to look surprised, astonished even. " _Nothing... Fascinating. Normally, that would work on just about anyone_." He says lowly, and Leah knows it's meant for her alone.

Oh.

He'd tried to ' _dazzle_ ' her, the absolute fuck.

" _She's gay_ ," Leah growls, glad Piper is busy thoroughly sizing Jasper up. " _She isn't interested in your sparkly zombie dick."_

His lips form a thin line, just barely containing his amusement.

Leah turns her attention to the exponentially less revolting blonde. "Are your, uh, parents home?"

Piper's mouth twists, and it sends the vampire at Leah's side into some sort of fit. Before long, her shoulders untense and she looks a little calmer. God. He just can't help himself, can he, the little freak? She blinks her brilliantly blue eyes before shaking her head. "Mom's..." She glances warily at Jasper. "Mom's at a meeting. Dad took Ashton to soccer practice after I told him I'd be busy today. Um... _Am_ I busy today?" Piper looks pointedly at Leah.

"Yes," Leah confirms. "We need to talk. Can we come inside?"

"Sure, I guess."

As they pile in through the front door, Piper politely asks, "Can I get you guys anything? Drinks, or whatever?"

"What have you got?" Jasper asks, sounding far too much like he's enjoying himself for Leah's liking, so she elbows him harshly in the ribs. If he were human, it might have shattered every bone in his body. Circumstances such as they are leave him smiling pleasantly; unbothered.

Asshole.

Piper seems to miss it, though. "Oh, anything, pretty much. Lemonade, fruit punch, soda... Depending on how dire this conversation is, I could probably break into my dad's liquor cabinet," she laughs, but it sounds wrong. Nervous. Fearful.

"I promise you whatever you're thinking this is about," Leah says firmly. "It's not."

"So you haven't decided to run off with your supermodel boyfriend to elope? And you don't want me to officiate your wedding?"

 _Jesus._

"Piper, I think you should sit," suggests Leah. "And I'm also going to pretend you didn't just suggest I'd marry someone so offensively repulsive."

"Repulsive?" Piper wonders, sitting on the couch so her knees are tucked under her. "He's kind of...stunning?"

"Thanks, ma'am," chimes Jasper, with a hint of exaggerated southern twang. Piper actually gazes at him a bit glossy eyed for a minute before shaking herself out of her stupor. He takes the open doorway, Leah takes the seat directly facing Piper. It's all strategic, see. Worst case scenario is that if she goes running, at least he can catch her before she does something dumb to hurt herself; calm her down with his weird emo voodoo bullshit, or whatever.

 _Hopefully,_ it won't come to that.

"Piper," Leah says; just like ripping off a band-aid. "I'm a werewolf."

Piper blinks.

"Did you hear me? I'm a werewolf."

 _"She's not in shock_ ," Jasper's wispy voice carries. " _Just in disbelief_."

"Okay," Piper says slowly. "You're a werewolf." She lets out a laugh, a hearty one that's positively delightful to hear but annoying in context. "And I'm the President. Glad we've got that established," she finishes, still giggling and looking at Leah like she's the most adorable thing in the world. Again, delightful - but downright irritating in context. Great.

" _Any bright ideas, Dr. Jekyll_?" Leah hisses.

" _A few. None you'd like_."

" _Try me_."

 _"Phase,"_ he suggests like it doesn't have several extremely, stupidly dangerous implications.

" _Fuck no,"_ is her immediate response; Emily's scarred face springing to mind, sending her shoulders shaking. " _Not risking it_."

" _We'll move to the forest, I'll keep a careful grasp on your emotions. You won't have the opportunity to feel even an ounce of anger_ , _I promise you_."

Already, she feels a wave of calm sweep over her. Acceptance. " _That's fucking cheating_."

 _"Do you want her to believe without a shadow of a doubt, or not?"_

 _"If this goes wrong, I'm going to kill you and your entire Bloodsucking Brady Bunch clan, got it?"_

He huffs a laugh. " _Sure, Jan_."

"I'll show you," Leah offers reluctantly. Piper quirks a brow at her. "But I can't...do it here. I'd break shit, and I'm guessing your mom would flip if she came back and found her living room a mess."

"Probably," Piper still sounds amused. "Okay, Teen Wolf, where _can_ we go, then?"

"Someplace forested," Jasper pipes in. "The backyard will do."

Piper turns her eyes on him, the blue in them glinting with repressed laughter. "Are you a werewolf too, then?"

He grins, baring his teeth just enough to make Leah hiss in instinctive annoyance. "Hardly."

* * *

If you had asked Piper Biers a week ago whether werewolves were real, she would have laughed in your face - not _unkindly_ , just in amusement. A true skeptic at heart was she. If you asked her now? Well, after watching the object of her sort-of affections shift effortlessly into a not-so-fun-sized wolf... Not nearly as funny now, she thinks. Not funny at all actually.

God, she's living an episode of Buffy.

Leah just became the Oz to her reluctant Willow and things like this just _don't happen._

She lets out an unsteady laugh; shocked beyond belief. A wave of calm rushes down on her, and she knows it isn't her own doing, that feeling. It can't be. She knows her own mind, and her mind is dead-set on being decidedly unsettled. Frantic. The wolf before her peers at her with careful eyes. They're the same brown, bordering on ember of Leah's.

"What the fuck," she laughs again, sounding hysterical even to herself. "What the fuck!"

The wolf - Leah? - growls in Jasper's direction.

"I'm trying," he says.

"Trying what?" Piper demands. "Are you - _talking_? Telepathically? Or can you suddenly understand wolf-speak?"

He meets her eyes. The vibrant honey-gold of his irises unnerve her but she doesn't look away. More calmness rushes through Piper's body, fighting against her decisive shakiness. It's wrong, it's not real, she knows this now. And there it goes. Jasper's lips tug into a scowl as he realizes. "She's figured it out. It's not - It's not going to work as _effectively_." He sounds particularly annoyed. "Phase back, I think she's willing to listen."

"Don't look," he advises Piper, like she was planning on it - _what the literal fuck_.

She shuts her eyes, trying to freeze out the panic swelling in her gut. If werewolves are fucking real, and have been under her nose this entire time, what else is out there? The intrusive calm nudges at her once more and she's a little less reticent to it this time. _Fine_ , she thinks. _Hit me with that Valium drip, cowboy._

It works, for all of five seconds, until a familiar voices croaks out, "Piper."

Crystal blue eyes shoot wide open, it's like a shock to her system. She takes in Leah's form. Her tank's on inside-out, she can tell, the tag's peering out from the collar. She wants to laugh, and she wants to scream, but mostly she wants to ask ' _why?_ '

"Are there more," she asks, instead, quietly. "Of you, I mean. Werewolves."

Leah nods. "The, uh, pack."

"The Quileutes," clarifies Jasper.

"All of - _All_ of you?" Piper asks, sort of horrified.

"Not," Leah heaves in a large gasp of air, exhales. "Not all of us. I'm the only female, for starters. Not sure what the fuck happened there. Luck of the draw? But, yeah. The ones you've met, at least."

Piper blinks, stunned, before shaking her head. "Okay, _okay_. Fine."

"Okay?"

"Okay," repeats Piper. Maybe if she says it enough, this will stop seeming so _absurd_. "You're a werewolf - that's okay. It's okay, right?"

Leah watches her warily.

"You don't, like, eat people right? Like unsuspecting grandmothers," she tries to joke but it falls flat. Tough crowd.

"We don't eat _people_."

Piper doesn't like the specifications on _'people'_ there, just let it be known. _Yes_ , she caught that.

"We eat food, we _are_ humans most of the time." A pause. "We kill vampires."

 _Vampires_

 _Dracula_

 _Count von Count_ , Piper's ultimately most regrettable (and embarrassing) childhood crush

REAL, ALL OF IT

 _Unless she's lying_ , a darker part of her mind is quick to suggest.

What reason does Leah honestly have to lie though? After turning into a giant, uncuddly wolf Piper pretty much figures that if being able to phase into a giant wolf isn't high up on the _'secrets to ABSOLUTELY keep from normies like Piper Biers'_ list, there's little else that would make the cut. Vampires included.

Piper wants to scream.

"Calm down there, little lady," Jasper's voice drags her back down to Earth, whether she wants it to or not, and it's infuriating. She doesn't want to be _here_ , on this _Earth_ , where vampires and werewolves and whatever the fuck else exists can do just that - _exist._ How fucking dare they pry themselves from the pages of her fairytale books and become real. Just... _how dare they_!

"Piper, calm down - "

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Piper screams, and she turns on Jasper, furious. "And don't fuck with my head, jackass! I'm - " She lets out another scream just for the hell of it. Because it feels good. Because it's the only thing she _can_ do. "What the fuck! Did you wake up this morning thinking _'Oh, you know what'd be really neat? Fucking with Piper's sense of reality, that's what! What a grand old time that sounds like!'_ Holy shit - You _cannot_ be serious right now!"

Jasper licks his lips, looking extremely close to rolling his impossible eyes. "Best get it out of the way quickly...while she's already on a tirade," he suggests.

"Piper," Leah almost pleads. The sound of it is _almost_ surprising enough to draw Piper out of her frantic state, but not quite. "You have to listen to me. I know you're freaking out, you're probably fucking terrified - I don't blame you, I don't, but please listen. For me?"

"Leah," Piper breathes out, eyebrows furrowing. She can feel her nostrils flaring, she's so confused and angry and just - she _feels_ like she's going to lose her damn mind. She just wants to go back to the day that Leah made her laugh on the spur of the moment car ride, to the day she'd held her while she cried in her living room, or back to the two of them standing over Riley's grave swapping stories in the cold rain. She wants _that_ Leah back. "Leah, I don't get it," her voice cracks. "I don't - I really don't get it. Why? Why now?"

Why werewolves? Why _vampires_? Why any of it?

"Piper," Leah says, eyes weary - oh no _oh no_ oh no - she can feel it coming; the worst of it. If the wolf-shifting were a band-aid being torn cleanly off, this would be open heart surgery. Or maybe it's more like resetting a fracture? Break all the glass bones in her chest just to make some room for more _HURT_. "Riley. He was - turned. He," she visibly swallows, as if the words taste awful. "He was a vampi-"

"No," Piper says quickly. "No, _don't_."

 _He was. Was, was, was._

That pesky past tense is enough to tear a brand new hole in her chest. All the patching up she'd done in the past few months; gone, torn asunder. Riley _was_ a vampire. Now he's nothing. Piper _was_ starting to feel okay _,_ starting to heal, starting to put her family back together, _and now she's nothing._

Was.

She hates the word.

"Piper - "

"Don't! Don't!" She doesn't want to hear this, she _knew_ she didn't want to hear this, so why is Leah still saying it? "Don't! Do not!" Her eyes spill over with tears, and they stream down her patchily red cheeks. She's mad - furious, really. "I told you! I told you I didn't know wh - what happened to him! I told you! And you knew! You just stood there, and you _knew_!"

"He was already dead," Leah tries, but Piper only spews out more utter nonsense through her sobs. "You have to understand - he was hurting people, Piper. Killing. The Seattle murders that went unsolved? Him and his little newborn posse. That _thing_ \- whatever it was - it wasn't your brother, not anymore. Not really."

 _Riley. Just don't be dead_ , she remembers wishing. Her cries become louder.

Jasper purses his lips in something akin to disdain.

"Oh, fuck off," Leah seethes. "Not every bloodsucker has monster-guilt embedded into their very fiber like your special brand of masochists. You trying to tell me you think those little leeches had souls worth saving? After all the damage they'd done?" Her eyes dart to Piper. "Families they tore apart?"

"He - He wouldn't hurt anyone. Riley was a hothead but he wasn't a bad kid," Piper mumbles to herself. Her shoulders shake with the effort of maintaining her sobbing. "Even...Even then, he wouldn't intentionally harm someone. I don't..."

"He was tearing out throats with his teeth and condemning kids just like him to a life of damnation and thirst," Jasper comments idly, studiously ignoring Leah's murderous expression. "Whatever impression you had of your brother was erased with his transformation. He likely didn't even remember your existence."

"Okay, time to go," she says hotly. "Before I rip your fucking head off your shoulders and remind you just how _damned_ you are." Her shoulders shake in apparent rage.

 _He didn't remember me?_

"I'm helping," Jasper replies acerbically. He levels a pointed look at Leah, lessening her anger presumably with his weird mind-games. She doesn't seem to appreciate that, if the severe scowl on her face is any indication. "Newborns rarely recall memories of their human lives immediately - if _ever_ \- and it's likely the Riley we'd encountered was entirely different from the one that was your brother." His tone is bordering on kind, but Piper doesn't trust it; doesn't like the way his words sound like honey when their intent is to cut, dig, dredge into her chest like knives.

And worse, as she faces Jasper, she tries to picture Riley with that deadly smile; that porcelain skin... those eerie golden eyes, but she _can't_. Brown eyed, flushed, _happy_ Riley's visage won't be quashed, or be content with being packed away into some distant corner of her mind. No. He demands to be front and center, as always.

Piper swallows the bile rising in her throat. Too much, this is just honestly too fucking much. She could handle Riley being that kid on those ' _Have you seen this boy_?' posters. She could. She could handle the entirety of Forks conspiring against her vain hopes and declaring him as good as dead in their minds behind her back. She did - she'd dealt with it for months; almost a little too efficiently. But this? This is too much. Way too much.

"I'm - I wanna go home," Piper says numbly. "I just wanna go home." _And hug Ashton, and hide in a hole for the rest of my life..._ "You...guys shouldn't stay here. My mother will be home soon and she won't like the noise after being sober for this long."

"Piper," Leah reaches for her, only for Piper to harshly swipe her arm away with a vacant expression. "There's more - look, there's a lot you don't understand right now."

More?

What else could she possibly have to say after _that_?

She turns.

 _Don't walk away_ , something inside of her says. It's pleading with her desperately. _You are angry and sad but think of how much more miserable you'd be if you'd never met her to begin with. Don't walk away, you need this, and you have to know it by now._

Chest heaving, heart hurting; Piper turns back on her heel, looks Leah dead in the eye. "Why is it so hard with you?" She asks, furiously wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "Why...can't I just fucking walk away? Why can't I just pretend none of this is real? What is it with you that changes everything?"

Leah looks pained.

"Is it him?" Piper asks, eyes darting accusingly to Jasper. But...no. That can't be right. He wasn't there for all the times before - all _those_ memories, at least, had been genuine.

"It's the imprint," Leah replies, finally, as if that's supposed to make a lick of sense, or something. "Maybe. It - It started out like that. It's what drew me to you in the first place, I guess, but it's _different_ now. It feels different than I've seen through the others. I'm not..."

"What the fuck is an imprint," demands Piper. "And what do you mean _'the others'_?"

"It's a bond," Jasper cuts in. Leah looks like she might throttle him, and Piper might not try to stop her at this point. "Much like the concept of soulmates, at first sight, the wolves are drawn to the 'imprint' in question and are meant to devote themselves entirely to their will - "

"Okay, shut the hell up," scowls Leah. She fixes her gaze back on Piper, and it immediately softens. "It's not - It's not like that with us, okay?"

Piper's blood freezes. "You... " She remembers. Leah running the first time they'd met. Leah coming back, unexpectedly, with a seemingly arbitrary excuse. It hadn't made sense but Piper hadn't cared - she liked the attention, it was a distraction. The talks, the laughter, the _warmth_ ; it was exactly what she didn't know she'd needed at the time. "You're only hanging out with me because you _have_ to?"

It's not real. It's not real. It's not real.

How could it be?

Who would stick around for the shit-show that is Piper Biers life _willingly_?

"Stop it. Stop whatever you're thinking," Leah sounds frustrated. She looks like she wants to take a few steps forward and take Piper into her arms, but thankfully, refrains. Piper doesn't know what she'd do. "It's not like that with us. I've seen the way Sam fusses over Emily near constantly. I don't - I _don't_ do that, okay? I know you can handle shit yourself. I don't obsess over your well-being like Jared, or feel the need to hover constantly like Quil - _though_ that's another mind-fuck of a ballpark entirely - and the only real effect I've felt was when it pulled me to you initially. And I'm not going to pretend to be sorry for that, so wipe that mopey look off your face, alright?"

"I don't," Piper swallows. "I don't like the idea of being forced on you. That's - this is _actually_ insane! You're telling me that if you'd had the choice, we wouldn't be here right now, and you don't want me to feel responsible for it? Why aren't _you_ angry?"

 _If they'd never met, she'd still be miserable, her mother would still be killing herself slowly, and her father would be little more than a ghost._

 _What is Leah getting out of this?_

 _NOTH_

 _ING_

"There's no legitimate reason for you to feel guilty," Jasper says calmly. "You had as little choice in the matter as she did."

"For an empath," Leah replies, tone biting. "You've sure got a shitty, skewed view on how human emotion actually works."

He gives her a shrewd glare, but somewhat miraculously, remains silent.

"I was, at first. Angry. Really, _really_ angry," comes the admission. "I had been hoping for so long to imprint on anyone, I didn't care who, just to get..." Leah's intense gaze meets her eyes intently, and Piper feels that shock-like jolt again. "Just to get over myself, okay? So, when I met you it felt like a cruel joke of cosmic proportions. This is what you wanted, isn't it? This is what you asked for? I tried staying away. I didn't want to get to know you, I thought you'd annoy me, or something, but I'd still feel attached like Quil with his Baby Alive fuckery. But you didn't. You weren't what I expected at all and getting to know you didn't feel like a chore at all, or like the universe was trying to force me into something inherently wrong; it felt right."

Piper's body betrays her as it fills with that trademark Leah Clearwater sense of warmth. It washes over in waves. Her eyes flicker towards Jasper, suspiciously, but she knows that not even he is capable of this severity somehow. "You made everything better," she admits quietly.

Leah quirks a half-smile at that.

"Until now." The smile abruptly drops, and Piper's guilt does not outweigh her hurt. "I need time. To process, or something." She doesn't know how the hell she's going to be able to swallow the actuality of werewolves and vampires and whatever else might be crawling out there - but she'll try, she has to. She's got to figure this out, if not for herself, then for Riley. Human Riley, happy Riley; the one that was her little brother. "I'm not...I won't make you stay away if it's going to be painful. I just need to be with my thoughts for a bit."

Leah nods, but Piper wasn't exactly asking for permission or approval. She nods back a little uncertainly. _This...is necessary_ , she thinks, for her own sanity if nothing else. "I'm gonna...go," she jerks her head back towards her house which is just barely visible through the trees. "I guess, even though it really sucks, thanks for being honest at least?" Her crystal blue eyes find Jasper and she purses her lips into a thin line. "Your little party trick is neat and all but try it on me again and I'll summon my inner-Buffy."

He smiles pleasantly at her, and tips an invisible hat in her direction. "Ma'am."

As she walks back towards her house, she chances one last glance over her shoulder. She meets ember eyes and feels eternally grateful that, _this_ , at least, doesn't feel like giving up.

* * *

 _ **AN;**_

* * *

 _This was gonna be a cute coffee shop AU sort of deal but I ruined it with my own shitty views on Imprinting ur welcome_ ╮(︶▽︶)╭ _I just legitimately believe that Leah would be the only wolf capable of handling an Imprint rationally (after the initial denial & anger, obv) because of her situation. I wanted to play on the idea of the Imprintee "needing" something beyond a romantic partner or a babysitter (in this case, Piper needed closure regarding Riley, and she gets it even if it is a *bit* of a rude awakening.) _

_This was supposed to end w/ a romantic sort of relationship when I started but I ended up deciding against it. It just felt too forced and that's the entire reason I dislike the Imprinting concept to begin with. But I couldn't help implying that *maybe* something could happen down the line, if they both decided to just go for it, I guess. Piper's gay as hell, and I don't think Leah gives much of a fuck either way._

 _Jasper may have been a little (a lot) OOC. Other than that, I was trying to stay as closely in-character as possible, so feel free to let me know if I missed my mark. I don't know if I'll write for Twilight again but who knows  
_


End file.
